Rodney King found dead in swimming pool

[Rick]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/rod ... 39712.html

Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by police in 1991 sparked the L.A. riots, was found dead at his California home on Sunday. He was 47.

Police said King's fiancée discovered him at the bottom of the swimming pool at their Rialto, Calif., home, about 55 miles east of Los Angeles.

Police responded to a call at 5:25 a.m., pulled King out of the pool and attempted CPR, but could not revive him.

King's representative Suzanne Wickman confirmed to his death to KABC-TV. According to TMZ, King's fiancée, Cynthia Kelley, told friends King spent the bulk of Saturday drinking and "smoked marijuana at some point," before she went to went to bed at 2:00 a.m.

The cause of death is unknown, but police are investigating it as a drowning. Rialto Police Capt. Randy DeAnda told CNN there were no preliminary signs of foul play.

King was beaten by four white LAPD officers following a DUI stop on March 3, 1991. Footage captured by an amateur videographer showed the officers hitting King 56 times with wooden batons.

"I just got lucky that night to have the cameras on me," King said in April, marking the 20th anniversary of the L.A. riots. "When I saw the tape, I was so happy that it was on tape and then looking at it, it was like I was in another body. I felt like I had died in that one, and was just watching it."

The four officers--Theodore Briseno, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Sgt. Stacey Koon--were acquitted of criminal charges, sparking the riots that left 55 people dead. (Koon and Powell were later found guilty of federal civil rights charges and sentenced to 30 months in prison.)

"It felt like Armageddon," King said of the acquittal. "It felt like the end of the world. I was hurt. I was past upset.

"I was raised not to be violent, and not to be rioting and carrying on like a wild man," he added, "but at the same time, there was a side of me saying, 'What else can you do?' I didn't agree with it, but I understood."

During the five-day riots--marked by widespread looting, arson and racially-charged beatings throughout South Central L.A.--King made his famous public plea for peace: "People, I just want to say, can we all get along? Can we get along?"

"Through all that he had gone through with his beating and personal demons, he was never one to not call for reconciliation and for his people to overcome and forgive," the Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement on Sunday.

King had long struggled with alcohol abuse, much of it detailed in his 2012 memoir, "The Riot Within." According to KABC, he was arrested or detained by police at least a dozen times on charges ranging from DUI to domestic violence.

In 2011--the 20th anniversary of his beating--King was arrested in California on suspicion of DUI.

According to TMZ, King was scheduled to compete in a celebrity boxing match against Jose Canseco in August.

[brandonx76]

wasnt he high on crack and/or pcp at the time?


word to the wise, when your taking an ass beating by a bunch of racists, stay the fuck down!


RIP Rodney

[Andrew]

Hope he wasn't beaten with pool cleaning poles.

[The Sushi Hunter]

So this guy had his own pool? Nice. What was his occupation and educational background?

[Ehwmatt]

Good riddance

[Jeremey]

So this guy had his own pool? Nice. What was his occupation and educational background?

He got a $3 million dollar civil settlement about 15 years ago.

[The Sushi Hunter]

So this guy had his own pool? Nice. What was his occupation and educational background?

He got a $3 million dollar civil settlement about 15 years ago.

Only 3 Million? Wow he must have been good at managing it since that was a while ago that this deal happened and he wasn't broke yet.

[artist4perry]

Good riddance

Can't we all just get along?

[The Sushi Hunter]

Good riddance

Can't we all just get along?

I'd be half tempted to let a hand full of cops beat my ass with clubs for that kind of money.

[donnaplease]

So this guy had his own pool? Nice. What was his occupation and educational background?

He got a $3 million dollar civil settlement about 15 years ago.

I think that money went buh-bye a long time ago. When he was on Celebrity Rehab Dr. Drew got a crew together to fix up his house for him (I don't remember there being a pool there). He just recently published a book, though, so I don't know what he made off that. I read somewhere recently that he was working in the record producing business... When he entered CR he had been working helping someone on a wrecker crew.

It seems like his whole life was a tragedy, and a large part of that had to do with choices he made. He carried a lot of demons around, and I'm certain he had some PTSD after what he went through with the LAPD (regardless of whose fault that was). I really liked the Rodney I saw on CR, he seemed like a gentle soul. Of course, he was sober and had cameras following him around - dunno what he was like when he was drinking/high/in his real world.

Regardless, RIP Rodney.

[rsimpson]

wasnt he high on crack and/or pcp at the time?


word to the wise, when your taking an ass beating by a bunch of racists, stay the fuck down!


RIP Rodney

No. He had been drinking. PCP didn't start until later in life.